Aug. 28--A mother and father were killed and three of their children were injured when cars suspected of drag-racing slammed into their van in Robbins as the family headed home from a church retreat, authorities and relatives said.
"This is probably as sad as it gets," Robbins police Chief Mitchell Davis told reporters Friday morning. "You got parents who are in a minivan with their three young kids. They're doing everything that they're supposed to do.
"They got themselves buckled in, they got their kids buckled in, they're going down the street not doing anything wrong," he said. "Then, out of the blue, their lives are just devastated, and we've got three orphans now."
Killed were Cherise Davis-Jones, 43, and her husband Less Jones, 59, both of Robbins. Three of their children -- two boys ages 4 and 7 and an 8-year-old girl -- were also in the minivan and taken to a hospital. Davis said they were expected to survive.
Davis-Jones was driving the van west on 137th Street in the south suburb around 7:45 p.m. Thursday when the two speeding cars ran a stop sign at Central Park Avenue and crashed into the driver's side of the minivan, flipping it and hurling it onto a vacant corner lot, Davis said.
"There were no skid marks," Davis said. "That means that minivan took the full force." Debris from the crash covered half a block.
One of the other drivers was taken into custody at the scene and the other was transported to a hospital.
Davis said police suspect both drivers had been drinking.
A relative said the family had been attending a church retreat and picnic Thursday evening and was headed back home.
"They were leaving from the church, from a retreat," said a relative of Less Jones. "It was horrific."
A cousin of the couple said she was not surprised they were together at the time.
"They were always together and that's why they died together," Myrtle "Cookie" Joyner said.
Dennis Sullivan is a freelance reporter. Rosemary Regina Sobol is a staff reporter.
